Q1 • 2024


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on the right page and there’s a cohesive approach to this exercise,” says van den Bergh. Expect a fair amount of debate before the strategy is approved and communicated—this part of the process is a major reason a rebranding typically takes 9 to 18 months. And once the strategy has been


approved, “the next challenge will emerge: the implementation,” van den Bergh continues. “That’s usually the phase where it goes well or it derails.” Arguably the biggest cause of


rebranding derailments is failing to ensure that the organization’s culture changes in keeping with the new brand promise, positioning, and offerings. “The best brands in the world are built from the inside out,” Cieslak insists. “A big mistake companies make is they don’t focus on the inside of the organization.” Microsoft’s cultural shift under Satya Nadella, who became CEO in 2014 and chairman in 2021, is considered a textbook example of a corporation that successfully changed its culture to serve its rebranding. To reposition itself as a customer-oriented rather than technology-oriented organization, Microsoft sought out customer feedback earlier and at multiple points throughout the product development process; introduced weeklong “hackathons” that brought together employees and interns throughout the organization to innovate together on concepts of their own choosing; and to facilitate greater agility, emphasized internal networks over divisional silos. According to global


executive search firm ChapmanCG, “reward and performance were also linked more to business impact versus activity, looking at what employees were achieving and how they work with others.” And while many organizations focus


on communicating the elements of their rebrand to customers, prospects, and the media, they fall short in ensuring that members of the team understand it. One all-teams meeting and a handout are not enough. For one thing, it’s impossible to communicate the rationale, causes of, and expected effects of a rebrand this quickly and easily. For another, if employees are simply presented with the rebrand as a done deal and sent on their way, they’re unlikely to feel fully committed to it. It’s important to invite and respond to their feedback throughout the process, beginning with the research stage. They’re the ones ultimately responsible for communicating, via words and actions, the rebrand to its audience, so a rebrand cannot succeed without their understanding and buy-in.


Fortune Rewards the Bold Organizations too often expect their rebrands to receive a universally rapturous reception. “Executives think it’s a big deal and the world’s going to change and the world is waiting for this, and it’s not,” Cieslak says. At the same time, “so many C-suite


executives are afraid to be bold and be something different,” Cieslak adds. Numerous companies get cold feet and rein in their rebrands, until the result is


little more than a shadow of the original strategy, with the visual redesign the only apparent element. Siegel+Gale’s rebranding of CVS


Caremark to CVS Health shows the importance of going big and following through. As part of its commitment to provide health and wellness services beyond filling prescriptions, in 2014 CVS stopped selling tobacco products in its more than 7,400 stores across the United States. CVS estimated this would cost the company $2 billion in annual revenue, which translated to about 1.4 percent of its previous year’s revenue of more than $139.3 billion. Instead, the positive press and social media buzz the decision generated, along with the expansion of its walk-in medical clinics, smoking-cessation programs, and other offerings, resulted in a 5.5 percent increase in same-store sales year over year, more than making up for the lost tobacco sales. It also demonstrated that the accompanying visual redesign, including the introduction of the “health heart” logo, truly represented something core to the improved CVS. “It was a strategic move to shift their business,” Cieslak says. “It also made other healthcare-delivery people rethink their businesses and their value propositions.” “Companies aren’t aspiration oriented enough when it comes to rebranding,” Heininger says. “You want to lean into it and create a brand that’s going to support your growth for decades to come.” Or, as Cieslak puts it, “Why spend the


money and time inherent in a rebrand just to put out a whimper?” 


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